Dear friends in Christ: As you know you are about to enter
into a union which is most sacred and most serious, a union which
was established by God himself. By it, he gave to man a share in
the greatest work of creation, the work of the continuation of
the human race. And in this way he sanctified human love and
enabled man and woman to help each other live as children of God,
by sharing a common life under his fatherly care.

Because God himself is thus its author, marriage is of its
very nature a holy institution, requiring of those who enter into
it a complete and unreserved giving of self. But Christ our Lord
added to the holiness of marriage an even deeper meaning and a
higher beauty. He referred to the love of marriage to describe
his own love for his Church, that is, for the people of God whom
he redeemed by his own blood. And so he gave to Christians a new
vision of what married life ought to be, a life of
self-sacrificing love like his own. It is for this reason that
his apostle, St. Paul, clearly states that marriage is now and
for all time to be considered a great mystery, intimately bound
up with the supernatural union of Christ and the Church, which
union is also to be its pattern.

This union then is most serious, because it will bind you
together for life in a relationship so close and so intimate that
it will profoundly influence your whole future. That future, with
its hopes and disappointments, its successes and its failures,
its pleasures and its pains, its joys and its sorrows, is hidden
from your eyes. You know that these elements are mingled in every
life and are to be expected in your own. And so, not knowing what
is before you, you take each other for better or for worse, for
richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death.

Truly, then, these words are most serious. It is a beautiful
tribute to your undoubted faith in each other, that, recognizing
their full import, you are nevertheless so willing and ready to
pronounce them. And because these words involve such solemn
obligations, it is most fitting that you rest the security of
your wedded life upon the great principle of self-sacrifice. And
so you begin your married life by the voluntary and complete
surrender of your individual lives in the interest of that deeper
and wider life which you are to have in common. Henceforth you
belong entirely to each other; you will be one in mind, one in
heart, and one in affections. And whatever sacrifices you may
hereafter be required to make to preserve this common life,
always make them generously.

Sacrifice is usually difficult and irksome. Only love can make
it easy and perfect love can make it a joy. We are willing to
give in proportion as we love. And when the love is perfect, the
sacrifice is complete. God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten Son, and the Son so loved us that he gave himself
for our salvation. "Greater love than this no one has, that
one lay down his life for his friends".

No greater blessing can come to your married life than pure
conjugal love, loyal and true to the end. May then, this love
with which you join your hands and hearts today never fail, but
grow deeper and stronger as the years go on. And if true love and
the unselfish spirit of perfect sacrifice guide your every
action, you can expect the greatest measure of earthly happiness
that may be allotted to man in this vale of tears. The rest is in
the hands of God. Nor will God be wanting to your needs; he will
pledge you the life-long support of his grace in the holy
sacrament you are now going to receive.